T]HE SQUARE BOOK 
 
 OF ANIMALS 
 
 ByWifflamNicholsoft. 
 
afru^ 
 
 University of California Berkeley 
 
 Gift of 
 THE HEARST CORPORATION 
 
^Or 10 M ! *i* 
 
FHE SQUARE BOOK 
 
 OF ANIMALS 
 
 ByWilliamNicholson. 
 
 RHYMES BY ARTHUR \VAUGH. 
 
 ft* 
 
 Published by R.H.Rwssell. New York. 1900. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The book of Animals was designed 
 by Mr. Nicholson in 1896. 
 
 Copyright, 1899, by William Heinemann. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 Entered at Stationers Hall, London, England. 
 
 Entered at the Library of Congress, Washington, U.S.A. 
 
AN EXPLANATION 
 
 Friend, seek not here (to feed the mind) 
 
 Zoology's recondite feasts: 
 Here you will find but common, kind, 
 
 And unsophisticated beasts! 
 
 Yet fresh the life of farm and grange 
 As that which o'er the ocean roams; 
 
 Take for a change a narrower range - 
 An English book for English homes! 
 
THE BRITISH BULL-DOG 
 You swing the gate; and there he stands to greet you, 
 
 V 
 
 With growl or grin, as you are Strange or known: 
 According to your merits will he treat you 
 
 An Englishman who loves and guards his own. 
 
THE UN-COMMON CAT 
 
 Nine lives they five the common cat 1 
 
 There's a rare one livelier yet than that! 
 
 A cat that swings nine separate tails! 
 
 And, when it's let out of the bag, it rails 
 
 With so knotty a tongue that the culprit quails! 
 
THE FRIENDLY HEN 
 
 Some birds lay e gj?s * n towering trees, 
 And some in fens conceal them; 
 
 The hen seeks friendlier haunts than these, 
 Where every child can Steal them. 
 
THE LEARNED PIG 
 
 The farm's philosophy, our eyes assure us, 
 Is simpler than in Aristotle's day: 
 
 The youngest piflinf follows Epicurus, 
 
 And Bacon's Essays take the primrose way, 
 
i 
 
 c, 
 
THE BEAUTIFUL SWAN 
 
 All day she rules the pond from edge to edge, 
 Exerting Beauty's easy privilege; 
 Her world a mirror spread in each direction, 
 Where she reflects upon her own reflection* 
 
THE VERY TAME LAMB 
 
 All men. Said the poet, are struck at a mint, 
 
 And some coins ring' flat that the coiners embellish; 
 
 But the lamb is so tame he will pardon the hint 
 He'd be best with a little mint sauce for a relish! 
 
If 1 <t rt l" 
 
 V 18 VL- .'It t: 
 
THE TOILSOME GOAT 
 
 At 
 
 You're a lively kid! is the schoolboy jest; 
 But the kid is driven to work one day, 
 And the hours of harness know little rest 
 For the stiff groat -carriage round the bay 
 
THE LUCKY DUCK 
 
 There -was a Drake, my Duck, at Plymouth Hoe 
 
 Played bowls, with Spain's Armada clear of Dover! 
 A gramesome spirit! But to him we owe 
 The peace your farm and all our homesteads know: 
 For, ere the Spaniard reached our wickets, lo! 
 Drake bowled him over ! 
 
COCK O' THE NORTH 
 
 Cock o' the North! The dawn Is young, 
 
 Grey-glimmer ing the pane; 
 Yet you, with your discordant tongue. 
 
 Have woken me again! 
 Good beasts are silent in their pens. 
 Hush ! Leave the boasting to the hens ! 
 
 10 
 
THE SIMPLE SHEEP 
 
 The sheep's like the man In the street. 
 
 She 'will follow, and blunder, and bleat, 
 In pursuit of her fate 
 At the slaughter-house gate, 
 
 And she learns it too late to retreat. 
 
THE SERVILE COW 
 
 When the cow*S In the farmyard , her Sense 
 Of servility's simply immense; 
 
 But you meet her a grain 
 
 In the highway or lane. 
 And she tosses you over the fence. 
 
 12 
 
THE GROWING COLT 
 
 Rough* shaggy colt: the world is all before you: 
 
 Blithe be your life, Secure of oats and hay; 
 A little crowd of people to adore you * 
 
 \ 
 
 And some grreen resting-place at shut of day! 
 
 13 
 
The sun is low behind the grrey-gnreen trees 
 And all the farm grows quiet by degrrees. 
 Among their many lessons this is best: 
 The animals know when and how to rest! 
 
 A.W. 
 

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 JTJ\